Saturday, May 31, 2008

FIRE TURCK ON THE RUNWAY! ABORT! ABORT!

well, went flying the past two days and am slowly progressing through my syllabus. last wendesday i was scheduled to go up for some routine practice and a renter did not come back with my rental plane in time for me to go up. this angered me a little bit simply due to the fact that i had checked it out for two hours. so we did some ground school and called it a day.

friday was fun learning about accelerated and secondary stalls, practice with the hood on and some very fun emergency landing procedures. now in the back of my head, i am always looking for a place to put down.

today was spent doing nothing but touch and go's, STOL practice and more emergency procedures. just as i was about to rotate my instructor says, "simulated fire truck on the runway... FIRE TRUCK ON THE RUNWAY! ABORT THE LANDING" of course i did not hear him say 'simulated' and was looking down the runway thinking what the hell? there's no firetruck on the runway. as soon as he said abort the landing, i understood what was going on and killed power and came to a full stop. it was a great way to end the days lesson.

got alot of reading to do for monday as we are going to knock out two ground lessons at once. im done with ch. 4 in the jepp GFD book and only have to read ch. 5 tomorrow. i'll be sure to study the exam questions and keep trying to be one step ahead of my instructor during the ground lessons.

Monday, May 26, 2008

falling and stalling

practiced stalls today! always fun stuff. went over both power-on and power-off stalls, flying in the pattern, touch and go's, and some IR flying under the hood. i did well on the IR stuff, and flying the pattern (thanks flight-sim!), and i think i'm getting the hang of the landing sequence. i just need to remember more right rudder when doing power-on stalls, and to apply the throttle right away after stalling with the power-off. these are minor things, but i need to be thinking about them for next time and ultimately my check ride.

i have the day off tomorrow since my instructor is working. so i will be hitting the books and doing exam prep in the jepp books. next flight is scheduled for wednesday morning. and as always during the summer time in florida, that flight is weather permitting. until next time 4NM is clear of the runway.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

catch-up

as you can see by the date of this post, i haven't flown in a while. weather did not permit flying last week and i started up on my ground school. i'm now through the first two ground lessons and the first two flights. got to do some touch and go's, slow flight, and practice flying the pattern. we had a little crosswind today but nothing serious. it was a fun day and im ready for more. i think i might be wearing out my instructor as i'm trying to fly everyday, but it seems all i think about is flying. so off to the books i go. i'm just about done with ch.3 in the jepps and i'm on to ch.4 in prep for more flying on monday. more updates to come!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

first thoughts

well, i went up for my 1st "official" lesson on tuesday and have another planed for tomorrow weather permitting. i say it was my first official lesson only because over the past few years i have taken an intro flight and a lesson or two only to find out i was way to poor to even think about completing my ppl on time and within any kind of budget. i have also been lucky enough to have accumulated a good amount of time flying my friend ricks' aerostar. but since it is a twin and does not count towards my ppl i have to start at square one. anyway, as long as mother nature permits, tomorrow will be my second lesson with my instructor jason. i should be receiving my jeppesen ppl kit this weekend, and i am ready to study. more updates to follow.

keep the blue side up



picture of the fastest GA piston twin ever built, the PA-60. this is ricks aerostar 3643D. it makes my skyhawk feel like a toy plane. truly a sports car of the sky. i'll miss her as he is selling it. luckily, he is planning to replace it with a v-tail bonanza! another piston speed demon.

Friday, May 9, 2008

it finally begins

after many years it is finally about to begin. i have been fascinated with airplanes since... well... forever. i have always dreamed of becoming a pilot and now that i am about to graduate college the time has come to begin living the dream.

today i went by the local flight school and met my instructor. we talked about getting my private done quickly and proficiently. i look to start training this week, and starting down the long and bumpy road of becoming a professional pilot. one reason i started this blog is to keep me focused and to have something i can look back on many years down the road when i hope to be getting paid to fly instead of the other way around. but perhaps the main reason i chose to do this is for anyone else that has been bit by the flying bug. i have spent countless hours reading pilots blogs getting a feel for the industry and learning how they trained. there is no better resource than first hand information, and i have found a lot of info on prospective flight schools and potential airline jobs. other bloggers such as birdinthesky have really inspired me to pursue my dream. and my hope is that maybe, just maybe, i can inspire someone else to follow their dreams too.